'Naked Calories': nutrition study filled with naked facts

The conclusions reached in the first part of this book are pretty depressing. It seems that no matter how hard we try to eat right, we can't. Many of these nutrients are stripped or never existed before you even see that loaf of bread or bunch of spinach in the supermarket.

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Do you eat 27,575 calories a day? No, you aren't seeing things — that figure is not an error. What it is, however, is the average amount of calories that co-author Jayson Calton has determined that we need to consume to become 100 per cent sufficient in all 27 micronutrients.

Yikes. (Just trying to visualize what this much food even looks makes my head hurt.)

The study which comes to this jaw-dropping conclusion was done for Calton’s PhD dissertation, and took three complete daily menus from each of popular weight-loss diets Atkins for Life (low carbohydrate), Best Life (low fat), DASH (mainly low sodium, and the diet that The USDA MyPyra-mid nutritional tool is based on) and South Beach (Mediterranean) diets and examined them for both calorie content and micronutrient sufficiency, based on U.S. RDI values.

When following any of these eating plans, Calton determined none of the diets delivered more than 56 per cent of RDI requirements (that was Best Life) with the South Beach diet hitting a low of 22 per cent and Atkins and DASH at 44 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively. (It is important to note here, as Calton does in the book, that the analysis did not take into account any recommended nutritional supplements associated with these diets, it just looked at real food.)

To reach the startling, 27,575 figure Calton increased listed food amounts in each diet proportionately until micronutrient sufficiency was met and took an average of that figure. The conclusion reached — that no diet, no matter how well or medically designed, can supply all our nutritional requirements — is also one of the main themes of this book.

The Caltons (a couple from Florida who married after Jayson treated Mira for advanced osteoporosis at the age of 30) say that "naked calories" — modern foods stripped of nutrients — and modern lifestyle choices have created an epidemic of micronutrient deficiency that is evidenced by the increasing rates of obesity and serious disease. The couple have done extensive research to reach this conclusion, including embarking on a six-year project touring the world to study the effects of modernization on various cultures, with their focus specifically on health and nutrition. (Not unlike the journey that dentist and nutritional pioneer Weston A. Price made in the ’30s.)

The book moves toward its conclusion by using a number of "naked facts," 19 in all. They start with the broad reasons for mineral deficiency, like No. 2 (Soil and food have been studied and micronutrient-depletion trend has been established), which includes a startling chart with information sourced from the 1992 Earth Summit Report which shows that the mineral content of North American soils has been depleted 85 per cent in the last 100 years.

The conclusions reached in the first part of this book are pretty depressing. It seems that no matter how hard we try to eat right, we can't. Many of these nutrients are stripped or never existed before you even see that loaf of bread or bunch of spinach in the supermarket.

By Naked Fact No. 6 (Avoiding heavily processed, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, and utilizing the Rich Food, Poor Food philosophy increases the likelihood of micronutrient sufficiency), the Caltons are offering a glimpse of a solution. The philosophy they talk about is this: Natural, unprocessed or minimally processed foods are "rich," while processed foods are "poor."

They explore the blocking effect that substances like alcohol, caffeine, prescription and non-prescription drugs and lifestyle stresses can have on micronutrient absorption before moving on to Naked Facts Nos. 11 and 12 (Obesity has been shown to be a condition of micronutrient deficiency and Malnourishment and obesity are both conditions of micronutrient deficiency. The only thing that differs is caloric intake).

When we get to facts No. 13 to 18 the solution is obvious — supplement, supplement, supplement — and we learn that not all supplements are readily absorbed and many don’t offer all the micronutrients we need.

All of the Calton’s "facts" up to this point are well researched and backed up by credible references. Then we get to fact No. 19, which specifies exactly what type of supplement we need to reach a state of optimum nutrition. And it turns out that the Caltons are in the business of making and selling it.

There is a lot of good information that would be useful to anyone looking at the nutrient content of their diet in this hardy, hardcover book (I carried it around everywhere with me for three weeks and it looks brand new), but I didn’t like the fact that the business angle was not introduced early; I felt a bit duped by finding that out in the final chapter.

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The conclusions reached in the first part of this book are pretty depressing. It seems that no matter how hard we try to eat right, we can't. Many of these nutrients are stripped or never existed before you even see that loaf of bread or bunch of spinach in the supermarket.

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